http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Professor Mikko Alava and undergraduate Tuomo Hartonen of Aalto University Department of Applied Physics have modelled the work processes and human decision making in scientific peer review with the help of statistical physics. Their study will improve understanding of how actions of reviewers and editors during the review work correlate with the decisions to publish or reject article manuscripts. The article presenting their research is now published in the journal Scientific Reports. http://phys.org/news285831852.html Other Sciences Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:44:28 EST news285831852 Flipping through a deck of cards in the library as her friends and classmates slough through books and papers means that, sometimes, people want answers from Carolyn Chen. http://phys.org/news283511697.html Other Sciences Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:15:04 EST news283511697 Philosophers and scientists have long puzzled over the origins of fairness. Work by a group of Harvard researchers offers some clues, with the discovery that uncertainty is critical in the concept's development. http://phys.org/news278841368.html Other Sciences Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:20:01 EST news278841368 (Phys.org)—The environment of group-living animals influences their social behaviour in a stronger way than was previously thought, says a new study from behavioural researchers at ETH and the University of Zurich. They thereby support the very counterintuitive argument that randomness is responsible for the establishment and the maintenance of social networks. http://phys.org/news273396644.html Biology Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:40:01 EST news273396644 (Phys.org)—The hullabaloo surrounding last week's release of the nation's employment numbers was a bit overblown, says a University of Michigan economist. http://phys.org/news269078015.html Other Sciences Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:53:41 EST news269078015 'Superinformation,' or the randomness of randomness, can be used to predict the coding and noncoding regions of DNA. http://phys.org/news266640091.html Physics Wed, 12 Sep 2012 03:41:40 EST news266640091 (Phys.org) -- In the natural world, it seems randomness is all around. Walk through a forest for example and it appears completely random, despite the fact that natural patterns emerge at almost every turn. In the human world, randomness is valued by all manner of people in a variety of circumstances, from testers of systems to ensure that weaknesses show up before products are sold to the public, to cryptologists, to those that run casinos where randomness ensures the house will win far more often than not. Unfortunately, guaranteeing true randomness is not something that comes easy. Take the lowly coin toss for example. A slight difference in weight on the “heads” side may cause the “tales” side to turn up a hundredth of a percentage point more often. Because of this, new work by a pair of physicists is catching the attention of people across a wide swath of interests. http://phys.org/news255684928.html Physics Tue, 08 May 2012 08:35:50 EST news255684928 (AP) -- After a series of emails and phone calls, Paul Davison is located in a busy hallway at the Austin Convention Center. http://phys.org/news250654004.html Technology Sun, 11 Mar 2012 03:14:22 EST news250654004 Randomness and chaos in nature, as it turns out, can be a good thing – especially if you are trying to harvest energy from the movements of everyday activities like walking. http://phys.org/news249051054.html Technology Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:51:02 EST news249051054 Newly awarded a 2012 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, Allan Sly, assistant professor of statistics, talks about his research into probability theory, his students and his own days as a UC Berkeley graduate student. http://phys.org/news248599231.html Other Sciences Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:20:41 EST news248599231 (PhysOrg.com) -- Evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski occasionally thinks of his 12 original flasks of E. coli as the experiment that keeps on giving. http://phys.org/news227780846.html Biology Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:28:04 EST news227780846 (PhysOrg.com) -- By striving for control and perfection in everything from computer chips to commercial jets, scientists and engineers actually exclude a fundamental force that allows nature to outperform even their best efforts. http://phys.org/news222452399.html Nanotechnology Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:20:23 EST news222452399 The World Cup offers fans of the globe's most popular sport the chance to thrill and agonize over the ups and downs of their nations' teams. For scientists, whether or not they are fans, it's another chance to collect data and test hypotheses about how close the final match results reflected the relative skill and performance of the two teams -- and if they used the best possible winning strategies. http://phys.org/news195480837.html Other Sciences Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:14:34 EST news195480837 (PhysOrg.com) -- Prime numbers have intrigued curious thinkers for centuries. On one hand, prime numbers seem to be randomly distributed among the natural numbers with no other law than that of chance. But on the other hand, the global distribution of primes reveals a remarkably smooth regularity. This combination of randomness and regularity has motivated researchers to search for patterns in the distribution of primes that may eventually shed light on their ultimate nature. http://phys.org/news160994102.html Other Sciences Fri, 08 May 2009 09:35:38 EST news160994102 Cambridge-based researchers provide new evidence that the human brain lives "on the edge of chaos", at a critical transition point between randomness and order. The study, published March 20 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, provides experimental data on an idea previously fraught with theoretical speculation. http://phys.org/news156767725.html Medicine & Health Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:36:21 EST news156767725